Baton Rouge, La. – Across the country, healthcare providers and payors
are working together on innovative programs that improve health outcomes
for patients and keep healthcare costs in line. Baton Rouge General and
its physician group Baton Rouge General Physicians, along with other healthcare
providers, has joined Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana’s
(BCBSLA) Quality Blue Value Partnerships program, a collaborative effort
focused on providing value-added, cost effective care.

Launched earlier this month, the Value Partnerships initiative builds
on the success of BCBSLA’s existing
Quality Blue
programs, most notably
Quality Blue Primary Care, a population health program introduced last year. Baton Rouge General
and its physician group are among four other large provider systems currently
participating in the new program, including Baton Rouge Clinic, Gulf States
Quality Network, Ochsner Health System and West Calcasieu Virtual Medical Home.

Quality Blue Value Partnerships helps participating providers’ leverage
data and analytical resources to better manage patient care across the
continuum. To participate, doctors must already be enrolled in Quality
Blue Primary Care. Baton Rouge General’s physician network was among
the first providers in the state to join the Quality Blue Primary Care program.

Quality Blue Primary Care focuses on effectively coordinating patients’
care with Blue Cross clinical staff who work directly with family medicine,
internal medicine and general practice physicians. This program especially
benefits those who have chronic conditions by allowing doctors to efficiently
share information and identify gaps in care – improving quality
of care and ultimately, outcomes for patients.

By adding the Value Partnerships program, large provider systems can expand
beyond primary care and examine their patients’ treatment experiences
throughout the entire system, including with specialists, hospitals and
outpatient centers that they manage. These types of systems are also called
Accountable Care Organizations.

To provide the technical and analytical support needed for the program,
Blue Cross is providing enrolled systems with access to an online dashboard
called TREO Solutions. Using the dashboard, administrators can review
Blue Cross claims data to identify ways that they can better use resources,
change their practice patterns, or conduct more robust engagement and
outreach activities to give patients the most appropriate level of care
in the best setting.

For example, healthcare systems can have doctors prescribe more generic
drugs, or they can reduce costly out-of-network services by referring
patients to the most cost-efficient provider or to other providers within
the same system for lab work or tests. These interventions effectively
reduce medically unnecessary services and control costs.

Click here
for more information about the Blue Cross Quality Blue programs.